Pakistan had an all party conference yesterday.
The conclusion was the negotiation and not military action is the solution.
But the number of problems is not small. Nor is the gravity of many of them very light.
The cause of the meeting is of course clear.
Pakistan-Us relations have nose dived and taken a plunge both at the same time.
This was inevitable.
In India many time people used to speculate that India should have sided with US rather than with USSR. This sentiment was expressed when USSR started showing the signs of decay. People felt that Pakistan had made the better move in siding with Pakistan. The diplomats in India started giving explanations that we really had no option but to go with USSR.
Well that is all past.
But you poor Alig still misses the good old USSR. No, no not the communism, Marxism, Leninism and not the things Stalinist at all. But the cute magazines and books full of that culture. (That this culture was created at the severe expanse of Islam and Muslims was realized much much later by your poor Alig. In fact the actual extant of this sordid aspect is still not known to the world.)
Now we are seeing the similar situation being repeated in reverse.
Pakistan is realizing that it should not have sided with America.
(Why do we equate US with America? Sorry buddies.)
Everybody knew that US is doing military operation in Pakistan.
Then there was Abbotabad operation-a thorough trashing of sovereignty of Pakistan.
Now Mike Mullen had suggested a few days ago that relationship with Pakistan may not be brought o the earlier levels any more. This was after Hina Rabbani Khar and Yusuf Raza Gilani's reaction to US accusation that the attack on US embassy in Kabul was was helped by Pakistan's ISI through Haqqani network.
Pakistan's relationship with US was always an illegitimate one. There was open relationship and there was the undercurrent. The governance in Pakistan, including the military was always under heavy Us influence. The influence was not complete but excessively heavy from any pragmatic standards. Pakistan has lived the life of a virtual banana republic. Sixty three years is a long enough time to assert your sovereignty. Pakistan did not do that. At least it looks like that.
Now the situation is that it has to assert.
That is why this all party conference.
The fear is that US might indulge in military action in border areas of Pakistan.
Wise people will tell us as to what Pakistan should do.
There is a lesson for India also here.
The old one.
US is a tricky friend. USSR was not.
US overwhelms your freedom, dignity and sovereignty.
The public gets dazzled by the mega-malls but the the decision makers must be completely alert.
One thing is clear that it will not be a pleasant thing to have an Afghanistan type Pakistan at our borders.
Us has killed Saddam Hussain as well as Tim Usman (both their own creation-well done both ways).
And they have killed many more.
Majority of them innocents. (We'll know it officially much later when the information will be of historical use only.)
So the endgame that is unfolding on the other border of Pakistan has implications for us too.
US will leave but it should not leave a black hole in our neighbourhood.
The remainder of Pakistan should be strong enough to govern itself.
India has got some other tasks at its hand. The power that is replacing US (at the moment sharing the equation of power balance with US in spite of its very understated presence) is in our neighbourhood too.
Your poor Alig does not know how many of the diplomats and statesman (see how the times change that you have to call them that) realize that some tough times are ahead for us. Now is the time to pay serious attention to it.
The conclusion was the negotiation and not military action is the solution.
But the number of problems is not small. Nor is the gravity of many of them very light.
The cause of the meeting is of course clear.
Pakistan-Us relations have nose dived and taken a plunge both at the same time.
This was inevitable.
In India many time people used to speculate that India should have sided with US rather than with USSR. This sentiment was expressed when USSR started showing the signs of decay. People felt that Pakistan had made the better move in siding with Pakistan. The diplomats in India started giving explanations that we really had no option but to go with USSR.
Well that is all past.
But you poor Alig still misses the good old USSR. No, no not the communism, Marxism, Leninism and not the things Stalinist at all. But the cute magazines and books full of that culture. (That this culture was created at the severe expanse of Islam and Muslims was realized much much later by your poor Alig. In fact the actual extant of this sordid aspect is still not known to the world.)
Now we are seeing the similar situation being repeated in reverse.
Pakistan is realizing that it should not have sided with America.
(Why do we equate US with America? Sorry buddies.)
Everybody knew that US is doing military operation in Pakistan.
Then there was Abbotabad operation-a thorough trashing of sovereignty of Pakistan.
Now Mike Mullen had suggested a few days ago that relationship with Pakistan may not be brought o the earlier levels any more. This was after Hina Rabbani Khar and Yusuf Raza Gilani's reaction to US accusation that the attack on US embassy in Kabul was was helped by Pakistan's ISI through Haqqani network.
Pakistan's relationship with US was always an illegitimate one. There was open relationship and there was the undercurrent. The governance in Pakistan, including the military was always under heavy Us influence. The influence was not complete but excessively heavy from any pragmatic standards. Pakistan has lived the life of a virtual banana republic. Sixty three years is a long enough time to assert your sovereignty. Pakistan did not do that. At least it looks like that.
Now the situation is that it has to assert.
That is why this all party conference.
The fear is that US might indulge in military action in border areas of Pakistan.
Wise people will tell us as to what Pakistan should do.
There is a lesson for India also here.
The old one.
US is a tricky friend. USSR was not.
US overwhelms your freedom, dignity and sovereignty.
The public gets dazzled by the mega-malls but the the decision makers must be completely alert.
One thing is clear that it will not be a pleasant thing to have an Afghanistan type Pakistan at our borders.
Us has killed Saddam Hussain as well as Tim Usman (both their own creation-well done both ways).
And they have killed many more.
Majority of them innocents. (We'll know it officially much later when the information will be of historical use only.)
So the endgame that is unfolding on the other border of Pakistan has implications for us too.
US will leave but it should not leave a black hole in our neighbourhood.
The remainder of Pakistan should be strong enough to govern itself.
India has got some other tasks at its hand. The power that is replacing US (at the moment sharing the equation of power balance with US in spite of its very understated presence) is in our neighbourhood too.
Your poor Alig does not know how many of the diplomats and statesman (see how the times change that you have to call them that) realize that some tough times are ahead for us. Now is the time to pay serious attention to it.